Donald Trump’s firing of James Comey may not be a cover-up – but it is a complete political disaster

Finished with the last meeting of the day in New York, Joe Crowley, the fourth most senior Democrat in the House of Representatives, was headed to an intimate fundraiser in a private home on the Upper West Side when the news, and his jaw, dropped: Trump fires Comey.

The guests had been promised an evening of song from the musically inclined Crowley, whose district encompasses large chunks of Queens and the Bronx. But first he felt the need to express his befuddlement about what had just occurred. “I can’t figure out what this White House is up to half the time,” he said. A voice at the back cried, “Half? You’re doing well then.”

Theories about the Comey dismissal – the reasons for it, the timing of it and the likely fallout – multiplied quickly enough to plug the hole in the ozone layer. Television pundits writhed in pain, their bloviatory bladders threatening to explode if they were not allowed to say Trump and Nixon in the same sentence. CNN became the “Cardiac Care Network because their ppl are having heart attacks over Trump,” former Governor Mike Huckabee quipped in a cheeky Tweet. (Never mind that his CNN is suddenly CCN.)